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The galaxy AM 1054-325 has been distorted into the S shape of a regular, pancake-like spiral due to the gravitational pull of nearby galaxies, as seen in images taken by the Hubble Space Telescope. As a result, clusters of newborn stars form along tidal tails that stretch thousands of light years, resembling strings of pearls. They form when clusters of gas collapse under gravity and form about a million new stars in each cluster. Image sources: NASA, ESA, STScI, Jayanne English (University of Manitoba)
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The galaxy AM 1054-325 has been distorted into the S shape of a regular, pancake-like spiral due to the gravitational pull of nearby galaxies, as seen in images taken by the Hubble Space Telescope. As a result, clusters of newborn stars form along tidal tails that stretch thousands of light years, resembling strings of pearls. They form when clusters of gas collapse under gravity and form about a million new stars in each cluster. Image sources: NASA, ESA, STScI, Jayanne English (University of Manitoba)
When amazing cosmic events such as galactic collisions occur, they trigger interactions to form new stars and perhaps new planets that would not have formed otherwise. The gravitational forces driving collisions between these galaxies create tidal tails – long, thin regions of stars and interstellar gas.
The Hubble Space Telescope’s vision is so sharp that it can see clusters of newborn stars drifting along the tides. They form when clusters of gas collapse under gravity and form about a million new stars in each cluster.
Specifically, NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope focused on 12 interacting galaxies that have long, tadpole-like tidal tails composed of gas, dust and a large population of stars. Hubble’s extraordinary resolution and ultraviolet sensitivity have revealed 425 new star clusters along this tail, which looks like a string of holiday lights.
Each cluster contains up to one million newborn blue stars.
Populations in the intertidal group have been known for decades. When galaxies interact, tidal gravitational forces pull long streams of gas and dust. Two common examples are antennae and mice with their long, narrow, finger-like protrusions.
In a study recently published in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society Astronomers used the near-infrared capabilities of NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope to study tidal tail clusters and determine their ages and masses, as well as the properties of galaxy mergers.
Michael Rudrak of Randolph-Macon College is the lead author of the study with co-authors including ASU scientist Sanchaita Borthakur and Karen Knerman of the School of Earth and Space Exploration.
A team of astronomers used a combination of new observations and archival data to derive the age and mass of a tidal star cluster. They found that these clusters are very young, only 10 million years old. They appear to form at the same speed along a tail that stretches thousands of light years.
“These observations tell us how stars form and what regulates the process. “This knowledge is important for understanding how stars form in our galaxy,” said Assistant Professor Sanchaita Borthakur, an observational astronomer specializing in extragalactic astronomy at Arizona State University’s Earth College. and space exploration.
The tail appears to pick up the galaxy’s spiral arms and extend them out into space. The outer part of the arm is pulled like candy due to the gravitational attraction between a pair of interacting galaxies.
Before the merger, the galaxy was rich in dust clouds of molecular hydrogen, which may have remained inert. However the clouds gathered and collided with each other during the encounter. This compresses the hydrogen to the point where it triggers a star birth storm.
The fate of this suspended star cluster remains uncertain. They may remain gravitationally intact and evolve into spherical star clusters, such as star clusters orbiting outside the plane of our Milky Way Galaxy. Or they may scatter to form halos of stars around their host galaxies, or be jettisoned into intergalactic wandering stars.
“It is exciting to present the culmination of more than two decades of work on star clusters tidally using data from multiple Hubble eras combined with data from other telescopes,” said Assistant Professor Karen Knirman. “I started working on this project when I was an undergraduate at Penn State in 1999, and some of the same data and results are used here. We obtained additional data from the Hubble program where I was (principal investigator) when I came up. to ASU in 2007.” “.
String of pearls star formation may have been more common in the early universe when galaxies frequently collided with each other. The nearby galaxies observed by Hubble are indicators of what happened in the past, and thus allow us to look into the past.
“It was surprising to see so many small objects in the tail,” Rudrak said. “This tells us a lot about the efficiency of mass formation.” “By using tidal tails, you will build a new generation of stars that may not have existed before.”
further information:
Michael Rudrak et al., Star clusters in tidal debris, Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society (2023). two: 10.1093/manras/stad2886 , academy.oup.com/mnras/article/526/2/2341/7286662
Magazine information:
Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
2024-02-09 18:02:29
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